Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

It was a place called Jivevaneng.
The Aussies were heavily outnumbered by the Japanese.
My father (Dudley McCaffrey) and his mates including Freddy decided to stay with the wounded. Steamboat Cottee might also have been there.
It was suicide but that's what that decided to do.
An old Irish priest was with them.
My father was manning the Machine Gun (a Bren Gun).
He was hemmed in by snipers and hadn't had any food or water for 3 days.
Freddy told my father to stay where he was and that he would bring it to him.
The snipers got him.
By firing the snipers had given away their position.
My father killed the snipers with the machine gun.
Bill MacDonald went out and got Freddy, but he was dead.
Freddy's mother used to cry and hold onto my father whenever she saw him.
My older brother was named Dennis but my father always called him George.
Bill MacDonald came home, but was wild and fiery and drank too much and couldn't settle down but was a real good man to have on your side in a fight. He became a Police Officer. The Cottee brothers went out West and drove trucks.
I am sure that my father had PTSD. He had served in the Middle East and NG and Borneo. My father became a teacher.